Kenya’s aviation watchdog courts would-be pilots to avoid looming shortage

By Steve Umidha

With a pilot shortage looming for Kenyan airlines, industry regulator the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has announced it will review earlier proposals to have training fees for would-be pilots abridged.

KCAA Director general Gilbert Kibe said the authority is pushing for a decrease in in the costs of training pilots to lure new aviators at a time many senior pilots are near the mandatory retirement age of 65, and it’s become harder to be a pilot.

“Our pilots are getting to retirement age now, we are concerned. People are also not being attracted to aviation as we would like. We have a challenge, however we have ongoing programmes to attract young people into aviation,” said Kibe.

Last year the national carrier Kenya Airways retired 10 pilots more than 62 years in a move that was aimed at diffusing KQ staff at the time leaving the industry with a huge gap to seal.

The current aviation rules and tougher qualification standards require commercial pilots to have commercial pilot’s license from the Kenya School of Flying at a minimum training fees of Sh 2,363,880 for 8 –12 months period while getting a private pilot’s license costs over Sh 817,300 for a 4-6 months course.

Fewer young people are opting for other career opportunities and cockpit jobs because of the cost of training and low entry pay to start at the regional airlines, which operate half the nation’s scheduled flights.

Citing the shortfall of qualified pilots, KCAA boss affiliated the trend to continuing poaching of trained ones from the Middle East airlines offering huge perks to aviation professionals. A Kenyan pilot earns in the region of Sh1.5million monthly.

“Kenya aviation professionals are one of the most sought after globally especially in the Middle East, in fact we do not mind as long as we are able to replace and train more pilots to join the industry,” said Kibe, adding that the authority has begun talks with the government to offer subsidies in reducing the costs of training.

It takes up to Sh3 million to fully train a pilot but with government – sponsored flying school, Kibe said the cost could go down to as low as Sh700, 000 following  engagements with International Air Transport Association (IATA) who he says will to look at how programs will be developed to address the matter.